Sixty-six million girls are missing from classrooms ! By Marissa Russo ! May 2, 2013 | College Magazine !

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When Martha Adams was younger and learning about the civil rights movement, she used to ask her parents all kinds of questions about the 60s.! I thought it would be incredible to be a part of a movement that changed society for the better, she says. I kind of had envy.! But after focusing much of her career on documenting and exposing stories around the world, such as the trafcking of children in the United States, its now Adams who nds her involvement with global issues to be something thats enviedand admiredby others.!

! The project:! ! ! ! ! !

Girl Rising, which is one of the award-winning producers latest projects, is a documentary that follows nine girls from nine different countries as they tell their stories. Each woman focuses on an issue that could be the single, most effective thing a country could do to end poverty: educate women.! After honing in on the candidates from each of the nine countries, Adams and her team paired each girl with acclaimed female writers from the same country who then helped tell the stories. Each story was also matched with a famous actress for narration, including Meryl Streep and Selena Gomez.! Its the ultimate trifecta, Adams says of the process. Everyone collaborating and pulling their talent to tell a very important story.! The project, which began roughly three years ago, set out to tell a different story at rst. The initial goal was to make a lm that would explore the whole idea of how to end global poverty, says Adams.! The Documentary Group started to conduct research by traveling to Washington, D.C. to talk with experts and interview big thinkers on development and poverty. It seemed like no matter who they spoke to, whether it was an economics person, an advisor or even someone dealing with clean water, somebody inevitably would say, Have you seen the numbers about girls education? Theyre incredible, says Adams.!

! New ideas:! !

The relationship between poverty and girls education seemed to be strong, beginning a new conversation for the team. Its a very powerful correlation. When you educate girls, infant mortality goes down, says Adams. When you educate girls, crops go up...gross national product goes up. This equation, unfortunately, does not exist in such a dramatic fashion with men. According to Adams this because when a woman is educated, she makes sure her children are educated too.!

Sixty-six million girls are missing from classrooms around the world. This fun fact is what sparked another interesting question for Adams: What percentage of our money, our dollar, our foreign aid is geared towards women's education? Its minuscule," she explains. Its less than three percent of a dollar that we spend overseas with our aid to fund education.!

After spending about a month in each country working with the women in the lm, and most importantly, the nonprot organizations that gured out how to empower girls, Adams met many who were living in tough conditions. I saw exactly how these women are game changers. How in one generation they are stopping the cycle of poverty. Girls, whose mothers and grandmothers never learned to read or write, says Adams.!

! Findings along the way:! ! ! ! !

Although those working on Girl Rising had a story they wanted to tell, they found themselves listening heavily to the writers from each region. They had a better understanding of issues in the country, Adams explains.! It was important to the writers and everyone else involved in the project to not have the world thinking of the countries in a one directional way. We wanted to tell a nuanced story, Adams says. Who are we from the West to determine what should be told?! While abroad, Adams was surprised to see that injustices that come in the form of gender violence and discrimination are changing. There are countries making great progress, she says. When a country puts some muscle behind it, they are seeing real progress. Nepal and India, where girls century after century have been subjugatedyou can see the entire generation go to school and become active members of society. It is really terribly exciting.! According to Adams, there has never been a better moment for tackling issues of women empowerment. This movement, the liberation of educating girls in the world today, is the movement of our time, she says. It might not be right outside your door, but anyone can participate. It is very excitingespecially for college students.